Wednesday, September 19, 2012

2012 Interbike News From Soma

Triple Cross: KVA stainless steel goodness

Hey, we know you might be more excited by Chris King doing press fit bottom brackets for the first time or some other OMG news streaming out of the Big Show in Vegas right now-- but in case you do care about what's going on with Soma and are wondering why -- again -- we are not showing off our wares at Interbike, here is the scoop of some of what we have planned for 2013.

1. Double Cross Disc: We are finally losing the canti bosses on our Double Cross DC. It will be renamed aptly "Double Cross Disc". The new color will be Old Gold. ETA: Feb. 2013. No change on the traditional Double Cross.

2. Juice: Our 29er will be finally updated with geometry more friendly to 100mm travel forks. 80mm will still work. But it is now optimized for 100mm. We originally resisted since a 100mm fork jacks up the cockpit kind of high and puts a lot of stress on headtubes, but it seems it is harder to find 80mm travel forks these days and the brave souls willing to ride them. It will also lose the bent top tube (We have shortened the seat tube by a 1/2" to help reduce some of the standover height gained by the straight top tube, but effective top tube lengths are same as last year. New color: Nickel ETA: Feb. 2013

3. Triple Cross (Pictured - sort of): We are doing a limited run of a KVA stainless steel cyclo-cross frame. Disc only. It will be mirror polished, not painted as pictured. It will probably be fillet-brazed and not TIG'd. It will have a slightly more conventional CX geometry than the Double Cross and weigh at least a 1/2 lb. less (fillet-brazing weighs more than TIG). Sizes: 50 - 60cm. ETA: March 2013

4. Smoothie SS: We are doing a limited run of a
KVA stainless steel version of our Smoothie road frame. It will be mirror
polished, not painted. It will probably be fillet-brazed and not TIG'd. ETA: April 2013

8. The Pick Up Artist: Last but not least, our front linkage steering cargo bike will be a reality in 2013. Will be equipped with a modest but functional SRAM drivetrain, Avid cable disc brakes, and Ahearne-MAP handle bar. ETA: February 2013